There is a line I read in the book of Proverbs recently that says that it is "the little foxes that spoil the vine." What was Solomon trying to tell us? The Jewish people in that day really valued their vineyards. Good grapes were a vital commodity in their economy and so they built large fences around their vineyards to keep out the large animals who might want to eat those grapes that had taken so long to cultivate. There would be no cows or horses eating these grapes. No bears or lions would keep them from enjoying that years harvest time. The one thing that they didn't consider was the little foxes.
Little foxes were too small to worry about because even if they got under the fences they weren't tall enough to reach the grapes with their mouth's. What they could do however was to gnaw at the roots of the grape vine until it would eventually fall over so that they could then eat all the grapes that their stomachs could hold.
Five weeks ago I spent 8 days in the hospital because I had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery. Laying in a hospital bed 24/7 gives you a lot of hours to think about what brought you there and like anyone in my situation I did a lot of thinking about the life I have lived. When we think about our lives we tend to think mostly about our highlight reels. The discovery we made, the business we built, the house we own, or the position we attained in life but in the end it's not the highlights that make the greatest impact long term on your life. It's the small, seemingly unimportant decisions we make over and over again, like where and what we are going to eat for dinner.
Most of us consider health to be a little thing, until it begins to fail us in some way. How many times have we said "eat desert first, you only live once." When you are laying in the hospital waiting for the surgeon to fit you in it's too late to go back and unsuper-size the deadly meal you made time for at your favorite fast food place. I will take a lot of time considering a new investment opportunity if I am going to risk my money but we don't think but a moment to determine where or what we are going to eat tonight. While I was laying there thinking about all of those things I realized that this simple small decision is a decision that we are risking our lives on.
As you look around at all of the overweight people in our nation today surely you can understand that we are what we eat. We are consuming way too much fat, and sugar, processed foods (now there is a contradiction in terms), bread and desserts. This crazy obsession we have developed for fast food is killing us. There is absolutely a direct correlation between the increase in the number of fast food places in America and the rise of heart disease. As one grows, so does the other. Heart disease is rapidly becoming the number one cause of death in our nation while childhood obesity and diabetes have become the biggest health issues among our children. Our poor eating decisions are affecting not just us but our children as well.
If food is the fuel that our bodies burn then why don't we begin to ask ourselves how much of what we put in our mouths is actually food. I would never knowingly put sand in the gas tank of my automobile but I have eaten fast food, candy, and buttered popcorn most of my life. When I said yes to butter on my popcorn at the theatre it seemed like such a small thing. It's just a little fox after all, but there I was laying in that hospital room waiting on the surgeon to fit me in. My grape vine was laying in the dirt with most of the grapes already gone.
What we eat, where we eat, and how much we eat are not little things, they just seem unimportant at the moment. In fact they are small decisions that ultimately will make a big difference in how we live. If we don't have our health then not much else matters in the long run.
Last Thursday night my wife Cindi and I took one of our grandson's to his first rodeo and he had an incredible time that night. He loves horses and is now aspiring to become a cowboy. We built a memory that night and I am planning on building hundreds more good memories in the years ahead. In order for that to happen I must deal with all of those little foxes. It is not too late to learn wat real food tastes like and it doesn't taste fast or processed. I am not going to destroy my own health with what I put in my mouth. This is just one of the first steps to reclaiming my health and I hope that you will join me on this journey.
